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7 Days of Recovery: What to Eat This Week

Overwhelmed by how to eat right? Focus on these key foods for triathletes, one day at a time.

by Dom Cadden, Australian National Champion Powerlifter.

There is a misconception that athletes do something special because they have some kind of special food or magic potion. It’s a myth that works well to sell billions of dollars worth of supplements and fuels, one superfood craze after another. The reality, however, is laughably simple.

Athletes need all the same things non-athletes need, but in higher (and often only slightly higher) concentrations. There is only so much food we can eat, so we must be picky about choosing foods with a high concentration of nutrients, and get them in the right balance. Let’s take a look at a simple week-long plan that focuses on the basic seven.

Monday: Perfect protein

Protein is a perfect illustration of the point above: All athletes need more protein than the average person. A not-particularly-active man requires 0.8g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight, while a male power and strength athlete looking to bulk up may require as much as 2 grams per kilogram each day. An endurance athlete needs 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram. To make optimal use of this protein, it’s best to eat it in servings of no more than 30 grams at a time. The Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) recommends an absolute limit of 200 grams per day, regardless of bodyweight and activity.

Tuesday: Conquer your carbs

Eating too much protein can come at the expense of carbohydrates. Carbs have received an unneccesarily bad rap. For athletes, they are essential fuel and the building blocks to recovery. Australian Olympic lifting and bodybuilding champion Paul Haslam described it to me this way: "If proteins are the brick for muscles, then carbs are the mortar. You don’t get the full benefit of proteins without the carbs."

Wednesday: Aim for iron

Heavy training can often cause athletes (runners, especially) to run low on iron, which can often lead to tiredness and poor recovery. At its worst, you can develop anemia and be hit with cramps, headaches and shortness of breath.

Many people go for the quick fix of an iron supplement, but these are often associated with side effects like nausea and heartburn or poor absorption, so it’s best to look to real food. There are two types of iron. Heme iron is found in liver, lean steak, dark chicken meat, fish, oysters and salmon. It’s the real deal. Non-heme iron in foods such as eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, cooked spinach, lentils, cooked kidney beans, tofu and almonds is not as well-absorbed by the body.

Thursday: Dial in the D

There’s been a bit of a vitamin D crisis in recent times. After years of being told to protect ourselves from the sun (sunlight is a ready source), medical professionals are concerned that many of us are dangerously low in the stuff. A blood test can indicate your calcium levels, but what’s less clear is how your body is absorbing calcium. This is where vitamin D comes in. Vitamin D is important for the absorption of calcium from the gut to boost bone health, a big factor for athletes who might be susceptible to stress fractures and other bone stress.

Oysters and fish are good sources, especially raw fish and tinned fish such as salmon, mackerel and oil-packed tuna and sardines. Eggs, mushrooms, and dairy and tofu products fortified with extra vitamin D and calcium also provide a boost.

Friday: Pass the potassium

Potassium helps maintain fluid and electrolyte balance in the body, so it’s easy to see why this essential nutrient is a big deal for athletes. And unless you’re on dialysis, it’s almost impossible to get too much of the stuff from natural sources.

Foods high in potassium include white beans (or navy beans), almost any other type of beans, leafy greens, baked potatoes with skins, fish, dried apricots and avocados. All these contain more potassium than the much-hyped banana.

Saturday: Ace the antioxidants

Antioxidants are vitamins and minerals that play a role in combating the cellular damage caused by exercise. These include vitamins C, E and A (beta-carotene) and selenium-rich foods, which help out with muscle soreness and enhancing recovery.

Good foods for antioxidants are acai berries (buy as a freeze-dried powder or frozen pulp), blueberries, leafy greens, olive oil and tomato juice or sauce. Sweet potatoes contain strong anti-inflammatory nutrients and the power to regulate blood sugar, along with their abilities as an antioxidant.

Sunday: Focus on natural anti-inflammatories

Sore muscles and inflammation comes with the turf for athletes, but over time, your gut will get like Swiss cheese if you eat ibuprofen like M&Ms, as some athletes do. Fortunately, there are some harmless natural anti-inflammatories that are easy to incorporate into your diet.

Fish oil: studies show that 4 grams per day of fish oil lowers cortisol. Anytime cortisol is unnecessarily elevated, it causes inflammation and can cause muscle and lean tissue loss. Fish oil can be used to prevent both chronic inflammation and to guard against muscle soreness when you’re in a high-intensity training phase.

Ginger: A study published in the Journal of Pain showed that half a teaspoon of the raw root or ground herb lessened next-day muscle soreness by 23 to 25 percent. It’s all due to the pain-relieving chemicals gingerol, shogaol and zinzerone, which researchers at the University of Georgia suggested might be more effective than popping anti-inflammatory meds.

Leafy greens:They come up a lot, don’t they? This time, researchers in the British Journal of Nutrition studied people who ate 75 grams of watercress before strenuous exercise and found that they had less post-workout muscle damage. They suggested that you’d get best results from long-term daily use, and that kale and swiss chard would also work well with a dash of olive oil, since the fat enhances the absorption of beta carotene (vitamin A) and other nutrients.

Turmeric: There’s a lot of buzz about this in the world of athletic performance. It might turn everything yellow, but turmeric has also traditionally been used as a powerful anti-inflammatory spice in Chinese and Indian medicine. It’s the curcumin (the yellow and orange components in turmeric) that does the trick, neutralizing free radicals to help decrease painful joint inflammation.

This article is sponsored by 2XU, the official compression partner of IRONMAN. Dom Cadden is an Australian National Champion Powerlifter.